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Unprecedented accurate abundances: signatures of other Earths?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2010

Jorge Meléndez
Affiliation:
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal email: jorge@astro.up.pt
Martin Asplund
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Germany
Bengt Gustafsson
Affiliation:
Institutionen för fysik och astronomi, Uppsala universitet, Sweden
David Yong
Affiliation:
Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University, Australia
Iván Ramírez
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Germany
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Abstract

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For more than 140 years the chemical composition of our Sun has been considered typical of solar-type stars. Our highly differential elemental abundance analysis of unprecedented accuracy (~0.01 dex) of the Sun relative to solar twins, shows that the Sun has a peculiar chemical composition with a ≈20% depletion of refractory elements relative to the volatile elements in comparison with solar twins. The abundance differences correlate strongly with the condensation temperatures of the elements. A similar study of solar analogs from planet surveys shows that this peculiarity also holds in comparisons with solar analogs known to have close-in giant planets while the majority of solar analogs without detected giant planets show the solar abundance pattern. The peculiarities in the solar chemical composition can be explained as signatures of the formation of terrestrial planets like our own Earth.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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